Psychopathic Personality

Description

The psychopathic personality is a particularly antisocial and predatory one.
Characteristics include:

A high need for control.

Arrogant and confident sense of superiority and entitlement.

Easily bored, seeking stimulation and lacking fear.

No loyalty, empathy or concern for other people.

Callous use of lies, manipulation and other abuse.

No conscience, lacking guilt or remorse for anything they do, no matter
how bad.

Cunning image management and shifting of blame.

Intelligent psychopaths use this in their manipulation of
others. They typically at first appear charismatic and empathetic, although it
is really just an act. In practice they are emotionally shallow and are far less sensitive than others to
signs of fear, distress or disgust (and may feel nothing at all around this).

Although they are often manipulative, they can also be impulsive and lacking
in self-control. As children, they may have been classed as delinquent and shown
significant signs of bed-wetting, animal abuse or fire-starting.

Psychopathy expert Robert Hare, defines psychopaths as:

…social predators who charm, manipulate and ruthlessly plow
their way through life … Completely lacking in conscience and feeling for
others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating
social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.

Discussion

Psychopaths are probably the scariest people on the planet, partly because
they are often good at appearing normal and also because they seem to take
pleasure in the discomfort of others. As they see others as 'things' and do not feel
empathy, this pleasure is based on
achieving control rather than an emotion-inverting masochism. Having said this
(Meffert et al., 2013) used fMRI studies that showed psychopaths as being able
to empathize, but having a conscious 'switch' whereby they can turn empathy off
at will, hence allowing them to act in unethical ways.

Whilst they do not empathize like most of us, feeling what others feel, they
are typically good at reading non-verbal signals and so appearing to be
empathetic. This is sometimes called 'cold empathy'. Being low in empathy does
not make a person psychopathic, but it is a defining characteristic of
psychopaths.

Because they do not care what others think, they are seldom anxious. In
consequence they seem confident and relaxed, which many of us would like to
feel, and so we tend to like that person who appears as we wish to be, especially
when they are acting in a friendly way (although their intent is likely far from
this).

The psychopathic personality is closely related to the
antisocial personality but is less
emotional and so more controlled and controlling. They are also similar to
narcissists in the way that they will
manipulate people, although narcissists seek admiration whilst psychopaths seek
only control. Deep inside, narcissists may well actually hate
themselves, which is why they seek praise. Psychopaths are completely convinced
they are superior. The portrayal of unfeeling robotic aliens in science fiction
may well be based on the psychopathic personality.

As with other disorders, symptoms may appear with varying degree, though
diagnosis is difficult and to
be classified as a psychopath the scoring has to be high. At the extreme can
be found cruel and cold killers, although (unlike many TV portrayals) few of these are sexually oriented.

It has been estimated that around 1% of the male population is psychopathic
(there are far fewer female psychopaths). Around 15-25% of people in prison in
North America are considered psychopathic. If
a psychopath ends up in prison, they will continue manipulation of everyone around
them, including any poor psychologists who seek cures in vain. Psychopathic
prisoners have a far higher chance of being released early. In fact therapy
just gives them more tools with which to control others (including the
therapist). The problem is so severe, psychopathy is
generally considered as untreatable.

Psychopaths often do well in aggressive businesses where they thrive in the
cut-and-thrust of company politics. To implement their schemes, they are often
very clever. At first they may seem ideal go-getting, dynamic employees. But
they leave behind them a trail of shattered and disillusioned people. It has
been estimated that around 25% of bullying is due to the 1% of people in
companies who are psychopathic.

In the workplace they seek to develop a network of independent relationships
with useful people, such as those with key information and those in power. They
try to keep these relationships apart so when they betray or drop individuals
the other relationships can be sustained. To sustain these multiple facades they
often avoid meetings and create conflicts between people to stop them sharing
information. When they close relationships they will neutralize anybody who
tries to expose them, including using other relationships to get the person
sacked.

Psychopaths who are successful in life are different from the less successful
once in a single personality dimension:
conscientiousness (which is also strongly related to
self-control). Their
ability to control themselves enables them to avoid impulsive acts (which are
common in other psychopaths) which would
give them away, hence allowing them to continue their manipulations with subtle
care. 'Success' for psychopaths often means power and control (which means not
being caught). Even if they are successful in these ways, they may suffer in
other ways, in particular having poor long-term and trusting relationships.

Many confidence
tricksters are psychopathic. The lack of concern for others and desire for
control makes this an ideal career path. Individually they will befriend and
then fleece vulnerable others. In business, they will work they way up and may
even
defraud the company of millions before disappearing into another alias.